No. 22 Miami rallies late, falls short against Louisville

Michelle Kaufman, Miami Herald on Mar 7, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — A sellout crowd of 7,972, the first of the season, packed the Watsco Center Saturday afternoon and was treated to a thriller as the 22nd-ranked Miami Hurricanes, the most improved team in the nation, came 30 seconds from making history against Louisville.

A victory over the Cardinals on Senior Day would have been the 25th of the season for Miami, which would have broken the school record.

The Hurricanes came oh-so-close before falling short, 92-89.

UM rallied from 12 points down to take its first lead of the game with 29 seconds to go on a Shelton Henderson tip-in and the building was rocking. Louisville’s Adrian Wooley answered with the go-ahead 3-pointer with 18.4 seconds left. They held on for the win.

“What a game, man, what a game,” UM coach Jai Lucas said. “The guys competed, they battled, the building was amazing. This is what you always want this place to be and especially with it being Spring Break and still people showed up and came out.

“I’m more upset because we couldn’t send our seniors out the right way. They meant so much to me in building this program. When we took the picture at half court, I told them `I’m hanging this in my office.’ "

Lucas said he felt Miami lost the game in the first 10 minutes when Miami fell behind 13-2. He also lamented not being able to call a timeout after Henderson’s put-back in the waning seconds. He said he was standing at midcourt trying to call a timeout, but the referee blew past him.

“That is the only thing I want back,” Lucas said. “But anytime you give up 46 points in both halves, it’s hard to win.”

Senior Tre Donaldson led UM with 25 points and six assists. Senior Malik Reneau made 14 of 16 free throws and finished with 18 points. Tru Washington added 12 points, five rebounds and four assists. Henderson had 11, Ernest Udeh had eight rebounds and Noam Dovrat chipped in nine points.

Louisville had led from the opening whistle, but Miami hung around, staying within six for much of the second half, buoyed by unusually accurate free throw shooting from a team that struggled at the line all season. On Saturday, the Hurricanes hardly missed. They shot 83% from the stripe (19 of 23).

Reneau drew foul after foul and made 13 of 14 free throws in the second half.

“They made a lot of threes, we knew coming in they shoot the ball at a high level, and I think sometimes defensively we weren’t as disciplined as we wanted to be,” Henderson said. “They made a tough shot [at the end].”

Lucas stressed in the leadup the game that it would be “a clash of styles” between Miami’s physical inside game and Louisville’s outside shooting. He also predicted that the Cardinals would play “at a high level, with great urgency and desperation” as they tried to boost their seeding in the upcoming ACC tournament.

Lucas was correct on all counts.

Louisville guard Ryan Conwell sank a 3 to start the game, Udeh responded with a dunk on the other end, igniting the Watsco Center crowd, but then the Cardinals went on a 10-0 run to take a 13-2 lead.

The Cardinals put on a shooting clinic the rest of the first half. With five minutes remaining before the break, they were shooting 70% overall and were 8 of 11 (73 percent) from beyond the arc.

Louisville pulled away and led by 12 but the Hurricanes chipped away, helped by guard Noam Dovrat, who came off the bench and a trio of 3s to close to within four points, 39-35 with 1:44 to go in the first half.

The Cardinals led 46-37 at halftime. Conwell led Louisville with 24 points. J’Vonne Hadley scored 16, and Isaac McKneely and Adrian Wooley each had 15.

Now that the regular season is over, the Hurricanes (24-7) turn their focus to the ACC Tournament, which runs March 10-14 in Charlotte, N.C. The top four seeds all receive double byes: Duke (1), Virginia (2), Miami (3) and North Carolina (4).

“It’s time to turn the page; this one’s over, the season’s over, it didn’t impact our seeding and where we are,” Lucas said.

The coach said he thanked his players in the locker room after the game and tried to lift their spirits after the tough loss.

“To win 24 games with 12 new players is really hard to do in this league,” he said. “I know this loss hurt, but I wanted to thank them and give them some grace.”